The present invention relates generally to golf-bags and golf carts and more particularly to a foldable golf cart/golf-bag assembly.
The background information discussed below is presented to better illustrate the novelty of the present invention. This background information is not admitted prior art.
Because of its historical ties to Scottish, English, and French monarchs, golf is referred to as a “royal and ancient” game. In the days of James IV, James V, and his daughter Mary Stuart, who it is said was seen playing golf just days after her husband was murdered, golf was considered a game for royalty. However, today the game of golf is played by persons from nearly all strata of society. Men and women, young and old play golf today. In fact, according to the National Golf Foundation, there are now nearly 27 million golfers, with about two million people taking up golf each year. People play golf for pleasure, networking, and exercise.
A game of golf offers maximum exercise benefits when the golfers walk the course, as opposed to riding in a motorized cart. Golf-bags containing clubs, balls, accessories, and other items useful or desired for the full enjoyment of the game, however, often end up weighing too much for most people, especially those with limited physical ability, to carry over the several miles that must be traversed while playing a typical eighteen hole game.
Some golfers will employ the services of a caddy to carry their golf-bags, if, indeed, their golf course offers such an amenity. Many golfers, however, feel that the expense of a caddy is a financial burden and are unable or reluctant to add this cost to the already high cost of playing the game. Thus, the need for a mobile golf-bag transport cart is obvious.
Wheeled golf-bag hand-carts constructed to receive golf-bags have been proposed. Unfortunately, these carts all present one or more drawbacks. Most carts require one or more straps to hold the golf-bag to the cart. Fitting a strap or straps around the golf-bag and cart to secure the bag to the cart is tedious and time consuming. The straps must first be threaded around the bag and cart and then the strap buckles must be clamped to secure the bag to the cart resulting in the golfer spending more time preparing for play and less time playing. It is obvious, therefore, that there is an unmet need in the art for a means to quickly, easily, and reversibly secure a golf-bag to a hand-cart.
Using straps to secure a golf-bag to a hand-cart presents additional problems. With use and age, straps lose their integrity and began to twist and fold against the load the golf-bag presents. Once this happens the golf-bag is no longer held tightly to the golf hand-cart causing the bag to turn and/or lean resulting in an uneven load making maneuvering the cart more difficult. Additionally, the straps most frequently used are routinely provided with the ubiquitous, plastic, insert-prong type of buckle. These brittle plastic buckles are prone to breakage and thus, must be replaced periodically presenting the golfer with yet another chore and another expense. Perhaps even more aggravating than having to periodically replace the strap buckle is the problem of trying to finish a game of golf while having to maneuver about the course with a bag and cart that are no longer securely attached to each other. It is obvious, therefore, that there is an unmet need in the art for a means to quickly and easily secure a golf-bag to a hand-cart without having to depend on twisting and folding straps and breakable buckles.
Another shortcoming of the hand-carts presently in use is experienced when a golfer places the golf cart with its attached golf-bag in a rest position at a particular hole. In order for this type of cart and bag to be stable while standing upright, the cart and bag must be placed in a position that results in the bag and cart being at some angle less than ninety degrees to the ground surface. This means that the golf clubs in the golf-bag must lean one upon another making underlying clubs difficult to identify and to retrieve. There are some golf-bag carts that hold the golf-bag is a more vertical position, but these bags are structurally unstable and likely to fall over. Thus, clearly, there is a need for a transporting hand-cart and golf-bag assembly that can maintain a stable, vertical, resting position so that a golfer can easily identify the required club and easily retrieve it from the golf-bag without having to “dig in” under the overlying clubs and having to bend over to one side or another.
Many of the golf-bag transport hand-carts in use today have frames that are bulky and heavy. Additionally, these frames cannot be easily and rapidly folded or opened for transport to and from the golf course. Moreover, the frames of the carts in use today were not designed to conform to shape of the golf-bag. Many of today's golf-bags are fitted with front, side, and rear pockets for holding golf related accessories. On many of today's carts the rear pockets are pressed against the frame of the cart making it difficult to access items in the rear pockets. Thus, there is a yet unmet need for a golf club bag transporting hand-cart that is lightweight and durable, is designed to conform to the shape of today's golf-bags, provides for easy and rapid folding and unfolding of the cart, is compact enough when folded to fit into most any storage and transport spaces, and allows for simple construction at minimal cost.
Some wheeled golf club transport hand-carts have their wheels relatively close to one another to allow for compactness of the cart while in storage or transport. The short axle length, however, means that when such carts are being moved from one hole to another or while the bag and cart assembly are in a resting standing position, they are inherently unstable. Some carts are manufactured with wheels that can be set apart to provide for stability. While these carts allow for adjustment of the axle length to minimize the space required for storage, once the wheel axle is shortened (i.e., the axle is in its retracted state) the cart's wheels are rendered immobile. This means that in order for the cart and bag to be transported through a door or gate having an opening narrower that the width of the bag and cart assembly when the wheel axle is retracted, the bag and cart must be lifted and carried through the opening. This can be difficult for most and impossible for some. Clearly, it would be a distinct advantage to have a cart with wheels that are functional in both a spaced apart and a retracted position to provide for the added feature of being able to wheel the cart with bag mounted through a narrow opening such as a doorway or gate.
Many golfers, over time, develop a fondness for a particular golf-bag and, even while they wish to increase the capabilities of their golfing equipment in general; they are unwilling to replace their favored golf-bag with another bag. Other golfers, especially beginners who already have made an initial investment in a golf-bag, may not be in the financial position to purchase a second bag, even one with a corresponding transport cart assembly that offered the solution to the long felt needs, as discussed above. So, it is clear that there is a need for a way to retrofit an existing golf-bag to a transport cart that is stable in a vertical at-rest position and while in transport around the golf course, has a lightweight frame that conforms to the shape of golf-bags with rear pockets, is durable, has retractable telescoping wheels, is able to be folded compactly for transport and storage, and yet is affordable.
Thus it is clear that what is sorely lacking in the art is a golf-bag transport hand-cart that provides solutions to the problems present in the carts that are currently available. The invention described hereinafter provides for all of these, heretofore, unmet needs.